Elio Vittorini (1908-1966), Americana: raccolta di narrator, a cura di Elio Vittorini; con una introduzione di Emilio Cecchi (Milano: Bompiani, 1947). (F) PS519 .V588 1947
This fall, 2017, Jhumpa Lahiri, Professor of Creative Writing, and Sara Teardo, Lecturer in French and Italian, will be teaching: “Translation Workshop: To and From Italian,” based on Elio Vittorini’s 1941 anthology Americana.
The book showcases “thirty-three American writers translated for the first time into Italian – transformed the literary consciousness of a nation under fascism.” An instance where “literary translation broke through barriers of parochialism and became a defining cultural phenomenon.” Also included are 100 plates of iconic American photographs.
Their announcement promoted a look at the book that inspired this class.
It was a relief to hear today that our friends in Chiapas, Mexico, are shaken but safe. We heard “the worst of the damage was in the lowlands, not in the mountains. Fortunately the famous facades of the colonial churches in San Cristobal de Las Casas survived intact as did the major Maya sites.”
Best wishes to these artists and their families.
Carlota Duarte, Mirror to our world = Un espejo de nuestro mundo (San Cristóbal de las Casa, Chiapas, México: Chiapas Photography Project, 2007).
Limited edition portfolios published to commemorate the achievements of the Maya photographers in the Chiapas Highlands. Artists include: Genaro Sántiz Gómez; Petul Hernández Guzmán; Domingo Pérez Sánchez; Lucía Sántiz Girón; Xunka’ López Díaz; Domingo Sántiz Gómez; Maruch Sántiz Gómez; Emiliano Guzmán Meza; and Juana López López.
In clamshell box, with hand-woven cotton textile slipcase designed after a pirik mochebal of the 1970’s/80’s. Copy no. 5 of 100. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2008-0459Q
Directions To Servants In General; And In Particular To The Butler, Cook, Footman, Coachman, Groom, House-Steward, And Land-Steward, Porter, Dairy-Maid, Chamber-Maid, Nurse, Lanundress, House-Keeper, Tutoress, Or Governess by the Reverend Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.
“I have a Thing in the Press, begun above twenty-eight Years ago, and almost finish’d: It will make a Four Shilling Volume; and is such a PERFECTION OF FOLLY, that you shall never hear of it, till it is printed, and then you shall be left to guess. Nay, I have ANOTHER OF THE SAME AGE, which will-require a long Time to perfect, and is worse than the former; in which I will serve you the same Way.” Letters to and from Dr. Swift … http://jonathanswiftarchive.org.uk/browse/year/text_4_18_4.html
Jonathan Swift worked on a parody of courtesy or conduct books for nearly three decades and it was probably still unfinished when finally published. “Lock up a cat or a dog in some room or closet,” he recommends “so as to make such a noise all over the house as may frighten away the thieves, if any should attempt to break or steal in.” The book is hilarious.
This led to Jane Collier’s An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting in 1753, which is basically an advice book on how to nag. The book came and went quickly but in 1806, William Miller chose to issue a new edition, with a frontispiece by James Gillray.
So popular was the volume that Thomas Tegg published an even newer edition in 1808, this time with a frontispiece and four other prints by George Woodward, engraved by Thomas Rowlandson.
‘Directions to the Cook’ from Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift – Read by Sir Alec Guinness
Detail from George Woodward’s frontispiece (etched by Thomas Rowlandson)
Below, “Train up a Child in the way he should go / and when he is old he will not depart from it. -Solomon.” Left: hanging two cats from their feet. Lower left: Tying a bottle to a cat’s tail. Right: Feeding very hot cheese to a cat.–George Woodward
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Directions to servants (Dublin: Printed by G. Faulkner, 1745). Rare Books (Ex) 3950.331
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Directions to servants: in general, and in particular, to the butler, cook, footman, coachman, groom, house-steward and land-steward, porter, dairy-maid, chamber-maid, nurse, laundress, house-keeper, tutoress, or governess (London: Printed for R. Dodsley …, 1745). Rare Books: South East (RB) RHT 18th-581
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting; with proper rules for the exercise of that pleasant art, humbly addressed in the first part, to the master, husband… (London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, 1753). Rare Books (Ex) 2015-0337N
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting: with proper rules for the exercise of that pleasant art : humbly addressed, in the first part, to the master, husband, … The second edition, corrected. (London: Printed for A. Millar … , 1757). Rare Books (Ex) BJ1843 .C64 1757
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting; with proper rules for the exercise of that amusing study. Humbly addressed, Part I. To the Master, Husband… Fourth edition (London: printed for Andrew Millar, in the Strand, 1753; reprinted for William Miller, Albemarle Street, 1806). Frontispiece by James Gillray.
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting. New ed., corr., rev. and illustrated with five prints / from designs by G.M. Woodward (London: Printed for Tegg … by Hazard and Carthew …, 1808). Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1808
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting. A new ed., corr., rev., and illustrated with five prints, from designs by G.M. Woodward (London: Printed for T. Tegg and R. Scholey, 1809). Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1808.11
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Jonathan Swift’s directions to servants. With drawings by Joseph Low (New York, Pantheon Books [1964]). Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Eng 20 39678
Save the date for an afternoon talk on Sunday, September 17, 2:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall: “That’s So Annoying! Thomas Rowlandson and The Miseries of Human Life”
Graphic Arts Curator Julie Mellby will discuss Princeton University Library’s collection of satirical drawings by Thomas Rowlandson given by Dickson Queen Brown, Class of 1895, and their relationship with James Beresford’s 1806 comic bestseller The Miseries of Human Life. A reception in the Museum will follow.
Merton College Fellow James Beresford addressed his book “To the miserable,” and began:
“Children of misfortune, wheresoever found, and whatsoever enduring, –ye who maintain a kind of sovereignty in suffering, believing that all the throbs of torture, all the pungency of sorrow, all the bitterness of desperation, are your own…! Take courage and renounce your sad monopoly.
Dispassionately ponder all your worst of woes, in turn with these; then hasten to distil from the comparison an opiate for your fiercest pangs; and learn to recognize the lenity of your Destinies.”
Going on vacation. Can you identify the unknown actors and actresses while I’m gone? Thank you. Julia Marlowe Taber as Lydia Languish
top left: Chauncey Ollott as Sir L. Trigger–Powers as Bob Acres. bottom left: Mr. J. Jefferson as Bob Acres. bottom right: Captain [ Jack] Absolute, The Rivals.
top left: unknown. bottom left: Helen Hayes, What Every Woman Knows. top right: John Baldwin Buckstone as Bob Acres 1802-1879. bottom right: unknown.
PDF: Sara Stevenson
Last spring, we invited Sara Stevenson to Princeton University to deliver the inaugural Gillett G. Griffin Memorial Lecture, a series of talks established in honor of our former Graphic Arts Curator. Each talk will highlight one important acquisition made under Gillett’s curatorship.
On a bright Sunday afternoon, Sara entertained and enlightened a full auditorium with her talk entitled “The London Circle: Early Explorations of Photography: The Willats album in the Firestone Library.” Our sincere thanks to Sara and to the entire staff who made this event possible.
We promised to make this talk available online for the many international researchers and fans who could not be in Princeton to hear it in person. Given many delays in rephotographing and posting the Willats album for our new online site and the writing of a web page for the posting of our Griffin lecture series, we decided not to wait any longer.
Here without fancy decoration or the illustrations still in process is a PDF of Sara Stevenson’s text. At a later date, we will do a more elaborate posting. Please circulate to photography researchers, collectors, and enthusiasts.
As everyone is preparing for the total eclipse of the sun on Monday, August 21, 2017 (live streaming at https://www.nasa.gov/eclipselive) we pulled out the chromolithographs after pastel drawings by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827-1895).
The French artist and astronomer moved to Boston in 1852 and through a Harvard contact, Joseph Winlock, he was invited to use their telescopes to make drawings, similar to what James Nasmyth and James Carpenter were doing in The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite (1874) https://www.princeton.edu/~graphicarts/2012/08/james_nasmyth.html
Records show he produced approximately 7,000 quality astronomical illustrations, 15 of which were reproduced as chromolithographs and published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1881. We keep the oversize prints separate from the text volume. There were so many layers of color printed to form these images, along with a top varnish, the sheets are slightly warped, as you can see in these reproductions.
Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827-1895), The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings Manual (New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1882). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) QB68 .T8 1882 and GC167
Final note: Another online site mentions that Trouvelot’s pastels were exhibited “alongside Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, Heinz Ketchup, the first commercially successful typewriter, and the torch-clutching right arm of the Statue of Liberty at the first World’s Fair in Philadelphia.”
World War I photography album. France, 1918-1936. 137 silver gelatin prints with typed captions. Oblong folio. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.
The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a photography album with 137 views of World War I battlefields, action, and damages in France, compiled by a soldier in the United States Signal Corps. Described in extended, typed captions, this engaging compilation of contemporary wartime action photographs also includes images from a later tour of the area by a veteran who was there.
Although several prints are stamped with Signal Corp logos, the photographs do not appear to duplicate any in the digital collection of US Army Signal Corps WW1 Photographs created by the US Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Their collection contains some 700 images from photographs taken during the First World War in France, Germany and Luxembourg, which can be searched at the following link.
The album holds one photograph that shows a group of soldiers working in a field, captioned, “The worst job of all. Cutting wire under fire before the advance on Very,” while another reads, “A view of the Cheppy Road looking north. We advanced up this September 26, 1918. Engineers are here repairing the mine craters.” [see last photograph below]
The first page of the album is entitled “No Mans Land,” and contains a trench photo of two men and a later picture of a man standing in the woods, with a caption that reads,
“The most confusing thing about old no-mans land is the fact that there is a national highway now running down the middle of it from Varennes thru Avocourt and on to Verdun. The picture above is the only one in action in 1918 by our outfit and shows some of Co. F, dodging shell fire in no-man land…. The picture to the left is myself standing where Cy Noble was killed on the dirt road from Cigalleri to No-mans land.”
The middle section of the album continues with photos of the French countryside containing remnants of the war and the cemeteries full of war casualties alongside images of the areas taken during the war. The final section contains images of World War I artillery and aviation, as well as several aerial shots of French cities, much of which relates to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, fought in the final days of the war before the armistice.
The Valise, a collective artists’ project, unites seven South American artists—Johanna Calle, Mateo López and Nicolás Paris, Maria Laet, Rosângela Rennó, Matías Duville, and Christian Vinck Henriquez—with the Argentine writer César Aira. The project, published by the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art, arrived this morning and we are still unpacking.
The works were made in response to the idea of travel and to Aira’s novel Un episodio en la vida del pintor viajero (An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter), with both the original Spanish edition (2000) and the English translation (2006) included. The novel concerns the surreal story of an 1837 journey through South America by the German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas, an associate of the explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.
Stored in a special valise or carrying case, the works include original prints, maps, artists’ books, airmail envelopes, origami toys, posters, a sound recording, and a hand-blown glass sculpture, all reflecting the artists’ shared affinity for geography, travel literature, and bookmaking.
The Valise was conceived, edited, and organized by May Castleberry, Editor, Contemporary Editions, Library Council Publications.
Latin American Studies and the Graphic Arts Collection are collaborating on the purchase of this very limited edition.
The Valise is published in a signed edition of 100 copies for the members of the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art. A deluxe edition of 25 copies is available for purchase. (The deluxe edition includes hand-cut paper architecture by López; a second original woodcut print by Duville; a Paris design, hand-painted in metal leaf, on the carrying case; and signatures on many of the individual pieces.) An additional 10 artist copies of each of the two editions go to the artists and other collaborators.
*This is only a small selection of items included.*
Elihu Burritt (1810-1879), A Walk from London to John O’Groats, with Notes by the Way. Illustrated with Photographic Portraits (London: Sampson, Low, Son & Marston, 1864). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process
In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Elihu Burritt the United State Consul to Birmingham, England, and through Burritt’s writings he brought the term “the Black Country” into common usage. He traveled widely, usually on foot, taking notes along the way, and A Walk from London to John O’Groats was addressed to his American friends. As Corresponding Secretary to the New Britain Agricultural Club he was particular interested in the state of farming and chose farmers as the sitters in the photographs.
Burritt was born and died in New Britain, Connecticut. Although trained as a blacksmith, Burritt made his name as a social activist, diplomat and author. In 1846 he founded the peace organization The League of Universal Brotherhood, and advocated temperance and opposed slavery. Thank you to Edward Bayntun-Coward for these details.
The book includes five mounted photographic portraits each with facsimile signature. The portraits are of the following individuals:
2. Mr. Alderman Mechi, photographed by Cundall, Downes & Co, 108 New Bond Street, London.
3. The late Jonas Webb, photographed by William Mayland, Cambridge.
4. Samuel Jonas, photographed by William Mayland, Cambridge.
5. Anthony Cruikshank, photographed by A. Adams, 26 Broad Street, Aberdeen.
The original binding by Burn (with label inside rear cover) is done in green cloth over beveled boards, the front covers blocked in gilt with a triple fillet border and the title in a cartouche at the center, the rear cover with a blind border, smooth spine lettered in gilt, and brown endleaves.
This is the first of two editions published in 1864.
See also: Burritt, Elihu, 1810-1879. Peace papers for the people … (London [184-?]). (F) BL262 .H583 1852
Clarke, Julius L.Circular [prospectus]: Dear Sir, A number of individuals residing in different parts of New England have recently formed themselves into a society called the New England Anti-Slavery Tract Association … (Worcester, Mass.: N.E.A.S.T.A., [1843]). First blank page is filled with autograph letter to G. & C. Merriam signed by Elihu Burritt. Rare Books (Ex) Oversize 2011-0237Q
Burritt, Elihu, 1810-1879. Sparks from the anvil (Worchester: Henry J. Howland, 1846). (F) BL262 .H583 1852
Elio Vittorini (1908-1966), Americana: raccolta di narrator, a cura di Elio Vittorini; con una introduzione di Emilio Cecchi (Milano: Bompiani, 1947). (F) PS519 .V588 1947
This fall, 2017, Jhumpa Lahiri, Professor of Creative Writing, and Sara Teardo, Lecturer in French and Italian, will be teaching: “Translation Workshop: To and From Italian,” based on Elio Vittorini’s 1941 anthology Americana.
